My scattered reflections

Pastor Frank Opoku-Amoako

(www.destinylifeusa.org)

1. THANK GOD FOR VALENTINE CELEBRATIONS!

In spite of the fact that some Christians and Pastors say that they hate the celebration of Valentine’s Day, I would rather urge all Christians and churches to step it up even into a higher gear - whether condoms run out of sale in town or not. This great virtue began from us, and we must not chicken out and allow the commercial world to bully us out of it - like the way they are trying to take Christmas away from us, and destroy it. People of God, let's keep celebrating it to His glory.

"MORE VALENTINE CELEBRATIONS FOR CHRIST"

2. WHO REALLY IS A MAN OF GOD?

It is not big titles, cars, houses, congregation size, flight class, finger rings, wrist watch price, shoe or suit make, etc., that make a Preacher a Man of God. NO!

A real Man or Woman of God is strictly defined by the Spirit of Holiness, Godly Character and the Aura of God's Presence around the Preacher.

Some of us REFUSE to accept the present-day cheapening of the designation "Man of God' by ruffians. Yes, Ruffians!

"'Evil prevails when good men do nothing’: Edmund Burke

The ever-increasing level of aberration in the kingdom requires good men to speak out, in order to protect the naive and vulnerable. We cannot stay silent and allow perversion to be perpetuated in Pentecostalism. Let God and good men arise."

Certainly, we cannot accept or be quiet for present-day ruffians, holding Bibles as preachers, to define the face or image of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity for us. No, some of us simply cannot.

There must be other voices of hope and rightness, else the true image of Christianity shall be contorted.

SCRIPTURE: "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." (Jude 1:3)

3. LET'S STOP THIS BOASTFUL BRAGGING!

I don't think it is spiritually productive to congregants for some of us Preachers to be bragging about our physical and material possessions in the pulpit. If you are a young Minister doing that, you have already learned some bad ministry habits. And if you are a senior Minister, with all due respect, may I ask you: When did you ever hear Jesus or Billy Graham, real global preachers and godly men, do this in the pulpit. And certainly, they pulled more crowds than you do as a local champion.

4. BILLBOARDS!!!

Sometimes, when even a good thing gets overused, it becomes a nuisance.

Using BILLBOARDS to promote the gospel is good; But at this time, I think our senior spiritual leaders must know that the overuse of Billboards has become a complete nuisance - in fact, an eyesore in Accra, for instance - where, it appears that the cost of one Billboard could feed and clothe a whole village school for a year.

I'm sure that when our senior leaders begin shunning that medium for some time, the ruffians shall eventually begin to respect the Holy Spirit.

SCRIPTURE:

"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify." (1 Corinthians 10:23)

5. NDC AND THE CLERGY FACTOR:

There is this Law of Leadership called ‘The Law of E.F. Hutton’, that says that, “When the real leader speaks, people listen.” I think that the way some NDC people over-react to some comments on national issues by some clergymen, make it appear that this Leadership Law frightens them. If I were to offer my novice advice, I would tell the NDC leadership that, much as most of the clergymen in the country remain generally silent on most of their policies, it would do them much good to also remain generally silent on most of the comments of the clergymen.

6. NPP AND THE ELECTION DEMOGRAPHICS FACTOR:

I don’t think that it is good strategy to assume that because things may not be going well in the county’s economy, people would automatically vote you back into power. Like the problem facing the Republicans of America, the country’s old time election demographic patterns have seriously changed – implying that you must also change. Even if you cry that the NDC relies heavily on rural votes, the rural people are also Ghanaians, with equally qualifying votes – And much of the country is still rural, anyway.